Rotten Tomatoes Suspends Comments on 'Dark Knight Rises'

By DERRIK J. LANGAP Entertainment WriterLOS ANGELESThe aggregating Web site RottenTomatoes.com suspended user comments on movie reviews of “The Dark Knight Rises” after commenters reacted harshly to negative reviews of the film and made profane and threatening remarks about the critics who wrote them.

Matt Atchity, the site’s editor-in-chief, said Tuesday it was the first time RottenTomatoes.com has suspended user comments, adding postings about “Dark Knight” reviews would likely be restored by the end of the week. The final film in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy opens Friday.

Atchity said the site is considering a move to a Facebook commenting system, which might cut down on the glut of anonymous posts. Other film review aggregating sites, such as MetaCritic.com and MovieReviewIntelligence.com, either don’t allow user comments or don’t permit comments to be posted before a film opens.

While “The Dark Knight Rises” is currently experiencing a glowing 84 percent “fresh” rating on RottenTomatoes.com, the film has been deemed “rotten” by a few critics, including Marshall Fine of Hollywood & Fine, Christy Lemire of The Associated Press and Nick Pinkerton of the Village Voice. Fine lambasted “Dark Knight Rises” for being “nonsensical,” and Lemire called it a “letdown.”

RottenTomatoes.com is owned by social movie site Flixster.com, a Warner Bros. company.